In magnetic storage systems, data is read from and written onto magnetic recording media utilizing magnetic transducers commonly. Data is written on the magnetic recording media by moving a magnetic recording transducer to a position over the media where the data is to be stored. The magnetic recording transducer then generates a magnetic field, which encodes the data into the magnetic media. Data is read from the media by similarly positioning the magnetic read transducer and then sensing the magnetic field of the magnetic media. Read and write operations may be independently synchronized with the movement of the media to ensure that the data can be read from and written to the desired location on the media.
An important and continuing goal in the data storage industry is that of increasing the density of data stored on a medium. For tape storage systems, that goal has lead to increasing the track density on recording tape, and decreasing the thickness of the magnetic tape medium. However, the development of small footprint, higher performance tape drive systems has created various problems in the design of a tape head assembly for use in such systems.
TMR sensors are used as readers in magnetic storage systems such as hard disk drives (HDD) and could be used in tape drives. Some TMR sensors have been shown to have an intrinsic defect which is caused by stress voltages. Particularly, both intrinsic and extrinsic breakdown behaviors have been observed. The intrinsic breakdown is characterized by an abrupt resistance drop in the TMR at the failure voltage, while extrinsic breakdown is characterized by a gradual drop in the resistance of the TMR.